Prayers for Chile

As many of you know, my Hubby's family is from Chile. We are still without word from them.

Please keep them and all those effected in your thoughts.

Bubbles and Beer

A playdate for the kids and the parents!!!!

We had a wonderful afternoon with our friends and enjoyed the cooler weather

(even though it was a bit overcast) with a fun outdoor playdate.

7 kids and 7 adults makes for a FUN day!

The kids had outdoor and indoor activities including car rides, wagon rides, and bubbles!!!

The parents had outdoor and indoor activities including little slidder burgers, homemade fries, and a beer!!!

Getting ready for our guests to arrive....

A little "added" color for a winter garden!!!

Wagon Rides                                    Car Rides

Play House                        Play Horse

It was a wonderful time had by all!

I think our friends enjoyed the party favors, too!

Join us tomorrow for some homemade empanadas!

Happy Cooking!

Laura 

Getting Ready to Party... Favors

We are so looking forward to our playdate tomorrow!!!!

We made little league favors for our friends.

Ingredients

Trip to the dollar store

$1 Sand Pail

$1 Baseball Bat and Ball

3 for $1 bottle of bubbles

8 for $1 jars of PlayDough

6 for $1 balls

4 colors of paint pens

a little creativity

Happy Cooking!!!

Laura

The New Addition to the Kitchen

The Hubby and I welcomed our KitchenAid Dishwasher into the home!

(Hope you are ready to do some work!)

I got to thinking....

I lovingly refer to my Red KitchenAid Artisan Mixer as "Big Red"....

The thought has entered my mind to name my new White KitchenAid Dishwasher....
What do you think of "Big White"???

Happy Cooking!!!

Laura

Enchiladas a la Greenhalgh

Last week we were visiting our best friends for a "Quad Playdate"
aka a playday with two sets of twins (our best friends are another set of twins that are 5 weeks younger than our twins).

My friend (Auntie Jen)'s mother was in town and she was making chicken enchiladas that looked delicious!!! So, I asked a few questions and watched over her sholder as I drooled! Since last week I have been CRAVING them.

So, I made them and they are my NUMBER 9!

I have named them "Enchiladas a la Greenhalgh".

Here's the recipe:

Enchiladas a la Greenhalgh

Jennifer and Janet

Ingredients

1 package of chicken breasts

1 packet of taco seasoning

1/3 cup water

1 can of El Paso "medium" enchilada sauce

1 package of corn tortillas

1 onion, diced and grilled

1 can of Rotel

2 cups of cheese (mexican blend)

Chicken:

Boil the chicken in lightly salted water on medium high until cooked throughout
(10-15 minutes, shorter or longer if necessary based on your ostove top and pot).
Remove chicken from stove, drain water, and shred with fork. Return chicken to pot.
Add taco seasoning and water. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Enchiladas:

Preheat oven to 350. 

Prepare 8x11 glass dish by lightly coated the bottom and sides with enchilada sauce.

Pour a small amount of enchilada sauce onto a plate. Lay the corn tortilla on
the plate and flip, lightly coating the tortilla with the enchilada sauce.

Place the "sauced tortilla" on a plate and fill with chicken, rotel, onions, and cheese.
Roll the tortilla and place in a glass pyrex dish. Repeat with the tortillas until the dish is full.

Drizzle remaining enchilada sauce on the top of enchiladas and cover with desired amount of cheese.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes and ENJOY!

Chef's note: Enchiladas can be filled with whatever you imagine....
olives, onions, green chilis, tomotoes... the fillings are endless! Be creative.

This is the BEFORE....

I don't have any AFTER pictures because The Hubby got into it and there was nothing left!

Just kidding, Hubby! :)

I have to admit.... Jennifer and Janet are from California and the only question that I have is.....

"What does it say that two gals from Cali are teaching a born, bred, and

raised Texan about good Tex-Mex?"

Happy Cooking!!!

Laura

*** Edited on April 13 to correctly reflect that this recipe is Number 9

Dishwasher, Oh Dishwasher... Parting is such sweet sorrow....

Truthfully, the sorrow comes from the parting of the bills in the pocketbook for the new dishwasher!

We have laid to rest our old dishwasher (came with the house 10 years ago). It went "kaput" and the noises coming from the unit made us think that it was going to jump out of the cabinet and expload right there in the middle of our kitchen. Off to Lowes we went, twins and all. Shopping for a dishwasher is a lot harder than one would expect. Then, add the "added" bonus of 16 month old twins and it is an experience you don't want to have to repeat. I hope we picked a good one. We did our research on Consumer Reports and we decided (drum roll please.....)

KitchenAid 24-Inch Tall Tub Built-In Dishwasher ENERGY STAR®
Stainless Interior

Here is a picture from the Lowes website...

My biggest pet peave is a noisy dishwasher. This ones claims to be only 54 dbls. I will let you know for sure! It has a built in food dispenser (apparently like a garbage disposal), claiming that you don't need to pre-rinse. We shall see....  

What do you think? Will it get the job done???

Happy Cooking (and cleaning)!!!

Laura

Sending out hearts of Love

We LOVE Valentine's Day!!

Not only is it a day to tell everyone you love them, it is also my mother-in-law's birthday.

So, we get to celebrate two times over.

Our menu was wonderful (if I do say so myself!)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Menu

Appetizer

Goat cheese crackers and champagne

in the backyard while the children played

 (all of the children, including my father!!!!)

Salad

Wedge Iceberg with Homemade Mustard Vinaigrette
(Number 7)

Main Course

Homemade pasta and pasta sauce

Dessert

Amaretto Pound Cake

Party Favors

Gourmet Drizzle Popcorn

~~~~~~~~

We had SO much fun preparing for lunch!!!

(My Mother in Law and the Homemade Pasta)

THE TABLE

Of course, Valentine's Day is ALL about ROSES!!!!

For an extra special touch, I channeled

Martha Stewart for a Rose Petal Napkin Fold

I was pleased with how the table turned out!

Party Favors

Drizzle Popcorn

(Number 8)

How about the Party Favors????
Yummy!!

This is how we did it....

We made popcorn and lighty salted the popcorn. We then added peanuts and
red, pink, and white MMs and drizzled melted chocolate. Once the chocolate dried,
we broke up the pieces and stored them until the party the next day.

Using a small plastic party favor bag, we put a few peices of the popcorn and tied with a pink ribbon.

Try it, it was wonderful!!!!

Happy Cooking!!!
Laura

***Edited on April 13 to include Number 7 and 8

Cabinets a la Its the Little Things..... reprised

Remember my post last week about Karla's idea for the "Wall of Oak"???

 It's the Little Things that Make a House and Home 

We did it! Saturday morning, the twins went down for a nap and I got out the electric screwdriver.

Here is our "BEFORE"

The "Wall of Oak" in all it's glory....

and here is the "DURING"

~~~gotta love electric screw drivers~~~

and here is our "AFTER"...

What do you think????

Close ups of each side.

Side by side.... to take a vote!!!

In an effort to make the change even more special, I decorated some of the shevles with items that the hubby and I have collected on our trips to Chile. Starting on the left... the first shelf has the two small jars (a jam jar and a sugar bowl) which are from a small country grocery store in Donihue. The hubby's family has a country home in Donihue. The second shelf - a trivet from Concha y Toro vineyard outside of Santiago. On the right side, the first shelf has a small milk jug from the small country store in Donihue and the third shelf has a wine bottle coaster from Concha y Torro.

I do have to make a qualification.... Karla made a wonderful suggestion to line the back fo the cabinet with wrapping paper to offset the items in the cabinet. On her blog, she details the trial and error of one paper and the triumph of another. I have not gotten up the will to try it yet. I have contimplated painting the back of the cabinet red - it just seems so permanent.

I would love any suggestions or thoughts on how you think it turned out!

Happy Cooking!!!

Laura

P.S. I have a few projects brewing.... a kids table that belonged to my great grandfather and an antique sewing table that belonged to my great grandmother. I also am looking forward to two parties this weekend - a playdate on Saturday and a family day with empanadas on Sunday.

An Olympic Opening Ceremony Party for Two

In honor of the Olympic Opening Ceremony -

we created an

International Smorgusboard (Sweden)

Appetizer

Guacamole with avocados (Chile), tomatoes (Italy), and onions (USA)

with Tortilla Chips (Mexico)

Dinner

Rack of Lamb (USA) with creamy mashed potatoes (Ireland)

with French wine (France)

Did you do anything special to celebrate the Opening Ceremonies???

Happy Cooking!

Laura

New Cabinets a la "It's the little things that make a house a home"

It is a rainy cold day in what is supposed to be "sunny" Texas!

The kids are down for a nap and so I am taking this chance to tell you about an awesome blog!

I know that I created this blog for foodie lovers and my new year's resolution, but I do do other things besides cook! So, I wanted to share more than just food - hope you don't mind!

This year has been filled with cooking and "do it yourself" projects in our home.

I felt that it was necessary to give a shout out to a blog that I have been following recently that is full of wonderful creative inspirational ideas. I initially found Karla's blog while searching for colored chalk board paint. (I was considering using it for the top of a child's play table that belonged to my great grandfather that I refinished - more about that later!) Anyhow, Karla had a post from a Martha Stewart article about how to make your own chalk board paint in any color! I did not end up using the chalk board paint recipe but I really took a liking to her blog! (and, I am still looking for a project where I can use the chalkboard paint!)

ANYWAYS.....

Have you seen this blog???

Its the Little Things that Make a House a Home

I love it! Karla is amazingly creative!!! Not only do I LOVE the title of her blog, I love her ideas!

This week I attempted my first project from her blog.

Here is her idea....

You take "A big, closed wall of oak" - Karla

and turn it into.... 

a showcase!!!

See how she did it at .....

How to How not to and a find that knocked...

So, with this idea in mind.... I got to work while the kids were napping and the hubby was tucked away at his office. I pulled everything from ALL of our kitchen cabinets - we have A LOT of kitchen cabinets - which is great for storage - but it tends to make you turn into a pack rat! So, after everything was all over the kitchen counters, I got to work. I reorganized the entire kitchen! I LOVE IT!!!! and.... even if hubby decides that he does not like the doors off of the kitchen cabinets, at least the cabinets are now organized. (HA!)

I think that he will like it once he gives it a chance.... right Hubby!?!?!

It is funny - I kept thinking to myself while I was pulling all of contents of my cabinets down, why did we put this here???? Then I remembered that it was exactly where we put it five years ago when it came out the box when we moved in! So, I figured it was high time I did something about it.

As for the doors to the cabinets, I wanted to pull out my electric screw driver and go to town, but the hubby wants to help with removing the doors and therefore it is going to be our Saturday morning project! I promise to post pictures of our transformation!

On another note... does anyone have any suggestions for an olympic opening ceremonies dinner? I have been racking my brain trying to come up with something festive! All I have thought of so far is onion rings to make the circles! Silly, I know.... I would love any suggestions!

Happy Cooking!

Laura

We finished a big week with lil' burgers!

First off, we had a long week! So, I decided to have some "down home" cooking with a flair. When the hubby arrived home from work on Friday, the grill was going! I made "mini burgers" (NUMBER 6) with "full size" onion rings. I bought small dinner rolls from the grocery store and made small patties. We grilled them for 4 minutes on one side and 3 minutes on the other side. I knew we wanted eight mini burgers. The biggest challenge was figuring out how big (or small) to make the patties so that we would end up with eight, Then I remembered a trick I saw on Rachael Ray this week when she made her Super Bowl Sunday meatballs - scoring the meat so you know how much to use. I scored the meat into quarters and made two patties out of each quarter. I used about 1 pound of meat total. It was a fun good ole dinner with a twist. 

Oh, and by the way, we tried a new wine. It is only sold in the "Lone Star State". It is called "Mission" and a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the wine goes back to the Alamo!

Happy cooking!